Evaporation into the Atmosphere: Theory, History and Applications (Environmental Fluid Mechanics (1))

The phenomenon of evaporation in the natural environment is of interest in various diverse disciplines. This book is an attempt to present a coherent and organized introduction to theoretical concepts and relationships useful in analyzing this phe­ nomenon, and to give an outline of their history and their application. The main objective is to provide a better understanding of evaporation, and to connect some of the approaches and paradigms, that have been developed in different disciplines concerned with this phenomenon. The book is intended for professional scientists and engineers, who are active in hydrology, meteorology, agronomy, oceanography, climatology and related environ­ mental fields, and who wish to study prevailing concepts on evaporation. At the same time, I hope that the book will be useful to workers in fluid dynamics, who want to become acquainted with applications to an important and interesting natural phenomenon. As suggested in its subtitle, the book consists of three major parts. The first, consisting of Chapters I and 2, gives a general ouline of the problem and a history of the theories of evaporation from ancient times through the end of the nineteenth century. This history is far from exhaustive, but it sket~hes the background and the ideas that led directly to the scientific revolution in Europe and, ultimately, to our present-day knowledge. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-11 History of the Theories of Evaporation — A Chronological Sketch....Pages 12-36 The Lower Atmosphere....Pages 37-56 Mean Profiles and Similarity in a Stationary and Horizontally-Uniform ABL....Pages 57-112 The Surface Roughness Parameterization....Pages 113-127 Energy Fluxes at the Earth’s Surface....Pages 128-153 Advection Effects Near Changes in Surface Conditions....Pages 154-189 Methods Based on Turbulence Measurements....Pages 190-196 Methods Based on Measurements of Mean Profiles....Pages 197-208 Energy Budget and Related Methods....Pages 209-230 Mass Budget Methods....Pages 231-262 Back Matter....Pages 263-302